above Mercury’s night side before passing directly over the planet’s north pole. The European Space Agency released the stunning snapshots Thursday, showing the permanently shadowed craters at the top of of our solar system’s smallest, innermost planet.

The BepiColombo mission successfully completed its sixth flyby of the innermost planet, moving closer to its final goal of entering its orbit.

Enigmatic planet Mercury posed for some closeups when the BepiColombo mission flew by. Craters, bright regions and volcanic plains star in the best views from the flyby.